Tom Waits (ANTI-)
@tomwaits
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New, previously unreleased song "Get Behind The Mule (Spiritual)" Out Now on ANTI- Records.
Joined November 2009
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Ah, the blessings of the cursed.
Shane McGowan’s torrid and mighty voice is mud and roses punched out with swaggering stagger, ancient longing that is blasted all to hell. A Bard’s bard, may he cast his spell upon us all forevermore.
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I don't want to have to shout it out
I don't want my hair to fall out
I don't want to be filled with doubt
I don't want to be a good boy scout
I don't want to have to learn to count
I don't want to have the biggest amount
I don't want to grow up
Happy birthday Tom!
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When told by a critic his voice sounded like it was soaked in a vat of bourbon, left hanging in the smoke house for a few months and then taken outside and run over with a car, Tom said, “flattery will get you nowhere with me.”
Photo: Clare O'Callahan
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Join us in wishing a Happy Birthday to the one and only Tom Waits!
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"We are buried underneath the weight of information, which is being confused with knowledge; quantity is being confused with abundance and wealth with happiness.” — Tom Waits, True Confessions, Published May 20, 2008
Photo: Anton Corbijn
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20 years ago today, Tom Waits’ Grammy winning album, Mule Variations, was first released. This album was widely acclaimed for its humanity, and its songs as a testament to Tom Waits legacy as one of the most important songwriters in America.
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Happy Birthday to Tom Waits!
New profile image created by Casey Waits.
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Iggy Confidential. It was a growler of a show. In case you missed it, Waits co-hosted a special show with Iggy Pop. The episode is accessible for a month via the BBC Radio 6 website and the BBC Sounds app.
More info:
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“Jim Jarmusch once told me Fast, Cheap, and Good… pick two. If it’s fast and cheap it won’t be good. If it’s cheap and good it won’t be fast. If it’s fast and good it wont be cheap. Fast, cheap and good… pick (2) words to live by."
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From all of us at ANTI, we want to wish Tom Waits a happy birthday. He is our beacon. His innovation, our inspiration. Music today wouldn’t be the same without him. We love you Tom!
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The folks at Anti- would like to wish a very happy birthday today to our inimitable inspiration, Mr. Tom Waits!
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Iggy welcomes Tom Waits to the Confidential Show.
The show will air on Iggy’s regular BBC Radio 6 Music slot at 8 am PST/11 am EST/4pm GMT on Sunday, December 3. The episode is accessible for a month after broadcast via the BBC website & Sounds app.
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I worry about a lot of things, but I don't worry about achievement... I worry primarily about whether there are nightclubs in heaven.
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Tom dusted off and signed his fedora to help raise healthcare funds for Union film and TV crew members who are without work while the Actor's and Writer's strike goes on. Filmmaking is a collaborative act of adventure and faith.
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Achievement is for the senators and scholars. At one time I had ambitions, but I had them removed by a doctor in Buffalo. It started as a cyst, it grew under my arm and I had to have new shirts made, it was awful. But I have them in a jar at home now. -- NME 19 Oct 1985
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On October 16, 1985, Tom Waits took the stage on UK's music program The Tube. Kicking it off with a short story about Frank's life after his Wild Years, Waits goes into "16 Shells From A 30.6," "In The Neighborhood," "Cemetery Polka," and "Walking Spanish"
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"All hardware items must be admired for their sonic properties: pitchforks, egg beaters, crowbars, fireplace grates, shovels, anvils, rebars, trash cans - the list goes on and on and they're all waiting to be played."
#tomwaits
#bonemachine
#earthdiedscreaming
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“If you record the sound of bacon in a frying pan and play it back, it sounds like the pops and cracks on an old 33 1/3 recording. Almost exactly like that. You could substitute it for that sound.”
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Mule Variations was the first album Waits released on the indie label, Epitaph Records. When asked how he chose the label known for it’s punk rock roster, he replied “They’re pro artist, forward thinking and I like their taste in music, barbeque and cars.”
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"I think that everybody likes music but what you really want is music to like you."
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“When you’re writing, you’re conjuring. It’s a ritual, and you need to be brave and respectful and sometimes get out of the way of whatever it is that you’re inviting into the room.”
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So goodbye, so long, the road calls me dear
And your tears cannot bind me anymore
Tom Waits on the tour bus reading Last Exit to Brooklyn, 1975 Nighthawks Tour
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You can watch the new Coen Brother’s film ‘The Ballad of Buster Scruggs’, featuring Tom Waits, now on Netflix or in select theaters in LA, San Francisco and NY.
Head to to watch the film, and to find a screening near you visit .
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Swordfishtrombones recording session 1982, Sunset Sound, Los Angeles
Tom speaking about Victor Feldman in 1983, “We used some exotic instruments. Which I was against at first… Victor Feldman brought in all this stuff and said you could use it or not but you should hear it.
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“Let him go boys, let him go down in the mud where the rivers all run dry…”
Love and condolences to Pogues, Victoria, family and all who loved Shane,
Tom and Kathleen
Photo: Andrew Catlin
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Forty years on from the magnificent album sequence that began with Swordfishtrombones, collaborators and fans including Jim Jarmusch, Thom Yorke, & Jeff Bridges discuss Waits’ journey from bar-room balladeer to conductor of the ultimate junkyard orchestra
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"We have a deficit of wonder... When I ask people questions now, they get on their computer—'Gimme a few minutes and I’ll let ya know …' And I’m like, 'Noooooo!' I want ’em to wonder about it, man! I don’t wanna know the answer—I just want ’em to wonder about it." (2004)
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This year marks the 50th anniversary of Tom Waits’ debut album ‘Closing Time.’ In Rolling Stone’s original 1973 review, writer Stephen Holden immediately detects elements of pathos and bathos that will be poured over by fans and journalists in Waits’ records for years to come.
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"I like listening to music far away – you hear it wrong. You hear it mixed in with everything else, so I usually try to step back so things are a little blurred for me like water stains on the wallpaper...you thought it was part of the design, but it’s not."
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Don't go to church on Sunday
Don't get on my knees to pray
Don't memorize the books of the Bible
I got my own special way…
Photo by: Christian Lantry
#tomwaits
#chocolatejesus
#mulevariations
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.
@phoebe_bridgers
has released a cover of Tom Waits' “Day After Tomorrow” - the latest addition to her Christmas catalogue. All proceeds from the sale of the track will go to The International Institute of Los Angeles - The Local Integration & Family Empowerment Division
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We’re celebrating Mule Variations’ 25th Anniversary. Here’s a rarely seen promotional short for the album’s release in 1999.
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"It’s true I’ll never sing opera again. It is, however the right horn for my car. People get out of the way when I blow it. It frightens children and gets me a seat at the bar. What more do you want from a voice?"
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September 1st marks forty years since Tom Waits’ transformative creative breakthrough, Swordfishtrombones, was released into the wild, ushering in a new and critically acclaimed era for Waits and his longtime songwriting and production partner, Kathleen Brennan.
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Barrelin’ down the boulevard, lookin’ for The Heart of Saturday Night
📷: Scott Smith
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"It was a choice between entertainment or a career in air-conditioning and refrigeration.
📷: Scott Spychalski"
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Upon its release, the Los Angeles Times called Bone Machine, “The musical equivalent of Clint Eastwood’s Unforgiven”
#tomwaits
#bonemachine
#blackwings
Photo by Derek Ridgers
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"If you get far enough away you'll be on your way back home."
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"Popular music is like a big party, and it’s a thrill sneaking in rather than being invited. Every once in a while, a guy with his shirt on inside out, wearing lipstick and a pillbox hat, gets a chance to speak."
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"God must be a musician because we all appear to be born with it already installed. It’s like factory air on all models."
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In the 80’s era, Waits departed from his 70’s era noir romanticism & traditional Tin Pan Alley songwriting to become a fiercely inventive sound sculptor, abstract orchestrator and miner of the subconscious while retaining his innate lyricisms, melodic sophistication and humanity.
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Nearly 25 years ago, Mule Variations was one of the most anticipated albums of 1999 and went on to win the Grammy for Best Contemporary Folk Album. Waits was also nominated for Best Male Rock Vocal Performance for the romantic ballad, Hold On.
#GRAMMYs
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Tom Waits reads “The Laughing Heart” for a 2003 documentary film, Bukouski: Born Into This.
Waits first became aware of Bukowski after discovering his column, ‘Notes Of A Dirty Old Man’ in the LA Free Press in the 70’s.
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"Most songs that aren't jump-rope songs, or lullabies, are cautionary tales or goodbye songs and road songs."
Photo by Matt Mahurin
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And every town I go to is like a lock without a key. The blues I leave behind, keep catchin’ up on me.
Tom Waits Asylum promo photo from early 1973.
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"I'm not a photojournalist. I do not do reportage…. Stories come from a lot of places, dreams and memories and lies and things… things you found and heard and saw and read and dreamed and made up."
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Happy Birthday Tom! Celebrate by revisiting 10 of his best songs, according to Farout Magazine. What are your favorites?
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"Somebody once said I’m not a musician but a tonal engineer. I like that. It’s kind of clinical and primitive at the same time."
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“Musicians who played with Waits throughout all five Island albums took away similar values — a mutual appreciation of gonzo freedom, openness to happy accidents and treating a song as a living organism.”
Read the full article:
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'Heartattack And Vine', newly restored by Waits/Brennan, is available on CD and now on LP in 180g black, clear or moss green colored vinyl at , or at your local independent record store in a limited edition 180g coke bottle clear.
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When the moon is a cold chiseled dagger
and it’s sharp enough to draw blood from a stone
He rides through your dreams
on a coach and horses
And the fence posts in the moonlight
look like bones
#tomwaits
#bonemachine
#blackwings
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“All of my dreams fall just like rain, on a downtown train”
Video Directed by Jean Baptiste Mondino
#TomWaits
#Raindogs
#DowntownTrain
#JeanBaptisteMondino
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'The Ballad of Buster Scruggs' gives Waits his first (mini-)leading role- but it's the culmination of a varied and impressive second career.
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In celebration of Mule Variations’ 25th anniversary, a previously unheard rendition of the song “Get Behind The Mule” has been released. Listen to this alternate take of the album's iconic track:
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'Blue Valentine', newly restored by Waits/Brennan, is now available on LP. It's available in 180g black, clear or moss green at , or at your local independent record store in a limited edition 180g translucent blue.
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"I like smog, traffic, kinky people, car trouble, noisy neighbors, crowded bars, and spend most of my time in my car going to the movies." (1978)
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“Mostly, I straddle reality and the imagination. My reality needs imagination like a bulb needs a socket. My imagination needs reality like a blind man needs a cane.”
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Tom Waits is reissuing his entire
@AntiRecords
catalog on vinyl & cd, newly remastered by Waits/Brennan. Pre-order: .
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ANTI is re-releasing Tom Waits' entire 1970's Elektra Asylum catalog. 'Closing Time' is out 3/09 and available for pre-order at . The rest of the catalog will be available throughout 2018.
Photo by Matt Kramer
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Swordfishtrombones sounded like nothing else before or since. Available to stream here:
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"I'm better off here in the sticks where I can't hurt myself."
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Following 1992’s Grammy winning Bone Machine, Waits ushered in a strange new beast on The Black Rider, with help from legendary Beat William Burroughs, avant-garde theater visionary Robert Wilson, & a nightmarish German folk tale, "Der Freischütz”.
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Tom Waits, Bill Murray, Iggy Pop, and RZA to star in Jim Jarmusch's new zombie film "The Dead Don’t Die," set for release June 14th. Read more about the film here:
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"I’m very crude, I use things we hear around us all the time, built and found instruments-things that aren’t normally considered instruments: dragging a chair across the floor or hitting the side of a locker real hard with a two-by-four...
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Tom Waits has curated a 76 song playlist spanning his entire career. You can explore the decades of Waits' many styles of storytelling swagger and heartbreak melodies here:
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The last chance to listen to Iggy Confidential co-hosted by Tom Waits is nearing. The show comes down January 1. If you’ve never heard a couple of cement mixers conversing and spinning some of their favorite tracks to one another, listen on
@bbcsounds
:
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Tom Waits has a multitude of ways to tell a story. These are some of our favorites from across the past 50 years.
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Tom and Kathleen in the studio spearfishing, to pull a swordfish out of the sea.
Swordfishtrombones recording session 1982, Sunset Sound, Los Angeles (with Fred Tackett and Peggy McCreary)
Photo: Clare O'Callaghan
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Listen to Tom Waits sing on
@marcribotmusic
's interpretation of the Italian folk song "Bella Ciao (Goodbye Beautiful)" now at Pitchfork.
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“You can’t live in the present forever.” - Zack (Tom Waits) Down By Law, 1986
Written and directed by Jim Jarmusch who described Down By Law as a “neo-Beat noir comedy,” the film is part nightmare and part fairy tale.
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Waits in his writing room at Zoetrope studios, 1980
Francis Ford Coppola's "One From the Heart" which Waits contributed a "beautifully wrought" Academy Award-nominated score, is getting a restored release. Opening today at IFC Center in New York and at the Alamo DTLA.
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Today marks the 50th anniversary of Tom Waits' debut album, Closing Time. This 50th-anniversary limited edition release is available on Clear & Black 180g vinyl and is packaged in a Gatefold Jacket with lyrics. Available June 02.
Shop:
📷: Scott Smith
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"Nothing beats the drama of a bullhorn."
📷: Jean Baptiste-Mondino
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Dark, theatrical cabaret music as only Tom Waits can do it:
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‘Mule Variations’ has been newly remastered by Waits/Brennan to sound better than ever on all digital music platforms.
Listen now:
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John Prine, Tom Waits and Kathleen Brennan will receive this year's PEN Lyric Award Prize:
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Listen to “Get Behind the Mule (Spiritual),” an alternate take of Mule Variations’ iconic track in honor of the album’s 25th anniversary:
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"New York stimulates your dreams. Your waking dreams. The contrasts are so devastating… tragedy and comedy crying in the same beer.” - Tom Waits in Tomkins Square Park, 1985
Photo by Robert Frank
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"You know, I don’t like straight lines. The problem is that most instruments are square and music is always round."
📷: Danny Clinch
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Tom Waits' piano version of "Innocent When You Dream" for Bansky's Walled Off Hotel - located in the shadow of the Palestine/Israel barrier.
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Who cuts your hair, anyway?
Rain Dogs promo, 1985
directed by Chris Blum
#tomwaits
#raindogs
#chrisblum
#barbershop
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Happy 20 years to ‘Alice’ + ‘Blood Money’. Thank you Stereogum. More news coming soon, stay tuned…
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Tom Waits is known as one of the great songwriters of our era. He is also one of our great song interpreters. Hear him transform the works of others on this illuminating playlist.
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A Little Rain: Tom Waits' most beloved lyrical ballads from throughout his 50-year career.
Listen to the playlist here:
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Celebrate 50 years of Tom Waits’ highly influential debut album ‘Closing Time’ originally released in 1973. The limited-edition anniversary double LP package is out today on black and clear 180g vinyl.
Shop:
📷: Ed Caraeff via
@IconicImagesNet
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Tom Waits, Hamburg '90
I picked the rose one early morn
I pricked my finger on a thorn
They’d grown so close
Their winding wove
The briar around the rose
I tried to tear them both apart
I felt a bullet in my heart
And all dressed up in spring’s new clothes
The briar and the rose
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Watch previously unavailable content from 'Rain Dogs' incl extended videos for “Downtown Train” & “Blow Wind Blow” →
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In 1983 Swordfishtrombones spoken word interlude “Frank’s Wild Years” introduced the Waits character/alter ego Frank O’Brien. Waits would revisit and expand on the character over the next few years.
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